The Books That Shaped Me | Reading Through My Decades | June 2021
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- Опубліковано 5 сер 2024
- So for the penultimate video in my five days of five videos for my 5th BookTube birthday I am back with a history of reads that shaped me which is also potentially a tag. The reason that it’s a potential tag is that I am tagging no one but sort of everyone, I don’t like anything that feels like a popularity contest but would also love loads of you to do it. Hahaha. What is it? Well I have picked a few books from each decade of my life that shaped me in some way, they don’t have to be all time favourites, just books that have bene there for me, become part of my being or changed my reading and my reading life a little. #TheBooksThatShapedMe #ReadingThorughMyDecades #BookTube
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Books Mentioned…
Elmer by David McKee uk.bookshop.org/a/550/9781842...
Rapunzel uk.bookshop.org/a/550/9780723...
The Worst Witch by Jill Murphy uk.bookshop.org/a/550/9780141...
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle uk.bookshop.org/a/550/9780141...
Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin uk.bookshop.org/a/550/9780552...
Perfume by Patrick Suskind uk.bookshop.org/a/550/9780241...
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier uk.bookshop.org/a/550/9780349...
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote uk.bookshop.org/a/550/9780141...
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie uk.bookshop.org/a/550/9780007...
When God Was A Rabbit by Sarah Winman uk.bookshop.org/a/550/9780755...
Before I Go To Sleep by SJ Watson uk.bookshop.org/a/550/9780552...
The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson uk.bookshop.org/a/550/9780993...
Physical by Andrew McMillan uk.bookshop.org/a/550/9780224...
From The Wreck by Jane Rawson uk.bookshop.org/a/550/9781529...
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters uk.bookshop.org/a/550/9781788...
On The Red Hill by Mike Parker uk.bookshop.org/a/550/9781786...
Me Elsewhere…
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Wishlist: www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/...
Spotify: open.spotify.com/user/2qu1l93...
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GoodReads: / simon - Розваги
The Bongy book is the cutest!!! 😍😍
What special and beautiful books illustrated by your grandfather for you. He clearly loved you and had a very special bond with you. He would be so proud of you and to see how far the books have travelled.
Almost cried when you were talking about Elmer and acceptance 😭😭 totally get the idea of books having an effect on you without you even realising until much later. So lovely!
Such a heartwarming video! Ur Bongy and uncle Derrick sounded like a hoot x
Omg Simon those books your Bongy made for you are incredible!! What a thoughtful gift!! 💕
How lucky you were to have a grandpa and an uncle who loved books and instilled such a love in you and thus we all benefit from them
So lovely when you talk about your grandfather and how lovely that he wrote those books for you - precious. I associate my love of reading with my grandfather too - sat upon his knee reading Brer Rabbit stories, as a 6 year old, on our caravanning holidays. And also the day before he died, me reading the newspaper to him, sat by his hospital bed, as he had lost his sight - which took us full circle to 30 years earlier, me being 9 years old reading the newspaper to him, in a sunny garden, a few days after he had an eye operation. Very cherished memories.
So many to choose 😁.
0-10- Mallory Towers, Famous Five, (big Enid Blyton fangirl); Ballet Shoes (Noel Streatfield), Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe and of course Alice in Wonderland( my first hard back which I bought with a WHSmith voucher😃): and of course Rupert Bear ( my Dad would sit and read these to me).
11-20- big Agatha Christie phase (still love them); Jane Austen, and Evelyn Waugh- Brideshead Revisted Remains my fav ever book ( and devoured the BBC adaptation with Jeremy Irons- fabulicious). Introduced to Perfume Patrick Siskind and Simone de Beauvoir ( late teenage angry finding yourself phase😂).
21-30- not a lot of reading done sadly- did find Tales of the City Armistead Maupin and read the whole series (bit of a book desert in this decade).
31-40- started reading more. My Dad was a great political, Cold War reader so John le Carre figured big time. Re- reading now, very sexist and in PC but, still great romps. Love the George Smiley character- so, Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker, Tailor , Soldier, Spy.
41-50- this is when my reading tastes expanded ( and I found Book Tube and you😂). I cried after reading Tin Man by Sarah Winman ( and I am not a crier), The Offing by Benjamin Myers is probs one of my all time fav reads.
Sorry this has gone on a bit but, I am old.
What a lovely gift from your grandfather! It is clear that you both loved each other so much.
Bongy, Grandma and Uncle Derek all had an important impact on your reading. So special those books! You getting the book about the psychotic surgeon before having surgery was as bad as my watching Die Hard 2 with the Planes before having a flight the next day.
What a wonderful video. I especially loved hearing about your childhood reading choices. How beautiful was your family - the books from Bongy and Uncle Derek memorising the stories for you. Thank you for sharing with us.
Oh I loved the worst witch growing up and related to Mildred as I was so different and clumsy.. Love Rebecca and when god was a rabbit.. Great to watch 😊
I really enjoyed this - the book reminiscences and the stories about your family. What treasures those books are from your granddad! It got me thinking about books from my own life and jotting down titles. A good exercise.
Absolutely loved this video 😍 I’ve been inspired by your grandad to write and make a book for my niece! We are the same age and I also LOVED The Worst Witch, and my favourite Ladybird was The Elves and the Shoemaker 😍 The one book that definitely shaped me when I read it in my 20’s was Jane Eyre. Her strength of character has stayed with me and I could even say she’s a role model!
1. The Tinder Box & Grimm Fairytales ( Dad used to read to us and do all the different voices)
2. Pride & Prejudice ( studied it for O’level and loved it ever since)
3. Ordinary People ( later made into a Oscar winning film. The reason my son is called Conrad)
4. Brokeback Mountain ( I even wrote to the author )
5. The Hoarder ( loved it so much I bought friends & sisters copies)
This was a great video, Simon. Those books from your grandfather are just priceless and precious. Love this idea of the books that have shaped us over our lives. I've taken a different approach to this idea. I recently turned 40 and put together my own reading project. Given that I've been on this Earth for 4 decades, I've taken it upon myself to read 4 popular books per decade; or 4 books per decade that I should have read by now but haven't. I've included some children's literature as well. The project is slow going, but I'm looking forward to the selections I've made.
I've been busy with my new experience in taking my PhD program, which makes me neglect my love for fiction. 🥲 so I'm thankful for having your channel here, talking about books, libraries and sometimes nature. One day.. I'll reach the balance and read more beautiful books like yours here 🤍🤍🤍 and yes, I love PERFUME too! That book got me to dive more into the mystery genre 🖤
I love this not quite a tag! I'm so sorry to hear about your Uncle though. These are just wonderful memories, thank you so much for sharing.
This is such a great video! I love how books can change us first and later evoke such strong memories. Nice to hear your stories behind your reading.
What you do for the reading and books community with your videos is fantastic (and talking about other people's lives). I'm sharing these with my book group.
Loved hearing all about your history in book form! Great video. You always make my TBR longer. Thanks also for the lovely tales of your uncle. How lucky you are to have had such a long line of lovers of stories in your life! (I couldn't figure out which Jess Kidd book you were talking about when I looked up the list of Jess's titles. Here in the US, it is called Mr. Flood's Last Resort. Quite a title change!)
Thank you for your wonderful video, I loved hearing about your journey through books. Your channel is an absolutely joy, I've found new favourite authors and genre's through your recommendations :)
This was so lovely, thank you for sharing all of this with us. Those books your grandfather made are just terrific. What a wonderful memento to have of him!
What an absolute treasure the books are that you’re grandfather made for you! I love that! Great video!
Waffles and Tangents would be a great name for a bookshop/cafe hybrid
Ahh this is such a good idea! I'm definitely going to do this!
I still have my copies of the worst witch. I really need to read them again !! 💜
What a fun and interesting video!
Dude Elmer is SO awesome. I used to read that to my son all the time when he was a toddler. I love how it celebrates difference - so important to emphasize when kids are little.
Absolutely loved this video. Boks are lime music I think. You can always pinpoint where you were at the time of reading /listening. Fantastic xxx
Congratulations on five years! Thanks for being you. I totally agree with you on Sarah Winman and Maggie Nelson. It would be great if you were able to come visit us in Australia. 😊
This was really wonderful. What treasures your grandfather made for you! And what amazing memories! Books that come to mind that had a profound impact on the direction of my life include Absalom Absalom, because I just didn’t know that writing could be like that, The Ambassadors, which I read while traveling in Europe, The Book Thief, which is when I really started recommending books, and from my youth, Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret, because it was like seeing myself in a book.
enjoyable and thought provoking. thanks simon.
Elmer is bloody marvellous! I have an Elmer hoodie which I adore. 💕
My Grandad used to tell me stories about the mouse who legged it 🐭 I wish I had them written down, your books made by your Bongy are beautiful, such precious memories.
Love this Simon! I will give it a go too, so many excellent books to talk about! I’ve just started listening to the audiobook of On The Red Hill from your recommendation, am also a big fan of north Wales and can’t wait to get back there.
Grandfather books very special.
I’ve just seen your list, haven’t heard you talk yet but I have just finished Detransition Baby and I was devastated by the end. I learnt a lot, I had some very weird dreams, especially as I have a chest infection and wasn’t sure if I was awake or asleep, I thought the narrative was excellent, the authors voice was just enough. There were some good moments but it was the heartbreaking scenes that will stay with me for a long time. I’m glad to see it here, I was going to ask you about it.
That’s such a good video thanks x
I gasped when you mentioned Perfume :). It was my first adult read as well (one of my brother's books). I was probably 15-16 and I became obsessed with it, I read so many times. My brother, who is 9 years older than me, always read the most interesting books, and it really influenced my reading taste.
I am the 'lovely man called Dan' and I approve this message. xo
Also, loved your choices - insightful video. (You spoke at one point about turning to Sherlock when unwell - I have a feeling Susan Sontag said something about this, or it was in Diane Setterfield's 'The Thirteenth Tale', possibly both, but apparently it's a common thing that people turn to crime when sick because there's resolution, a sense of things coming to an end, so loved to hear something like that repeated here!)
When I traveled to England in my teens my friends and I discovered Elmer! What a lovely picture book! I even have an Elmer stuffy.
I love Tales from the City, too! I was delighted to find the show when I was young and then read the first few books. I've always wondered if I should go back and read the later books.
This was so great...Rapunzel the duck...💞💞...and all the memories ..and your like your uncle..one edition for traveling and one to stay home....my dad also tore out pages but not sure why
.??
I'm the same age as Simon, but I'm going to go with five books as that's what others have chosen, at least one person on here anyway!
1. The Tiger Skin Rug by Gerald Rose, I love this picture book, I read it or it was read to me so many times, my original copy is falling to pieces. I think Gerald Rose is a wonderful illustrator and a sadly underrated one, another one of his books that I love is Scruff, the tale of a stinky dog.
2. Johnny and the Dead by Terry Pratchett, to put it bluntly, this book saved me as a teenager, when I was in my mid teens, I was having a really horrible time of it, and I borrowed the unabridged audiobook of this on cassette (!) from the library and endlessly played it. I just identified with Johnny in a bizarre sort of way and the plotline of all the adults are unaware of what’s going on and it’s up to the children to save the day, I think is something that has endured with me throughout the years both in fiction and real life.
3. Oranges are not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson, there was quite a significant estrangement with one of my grandparents, and I never ever got the full story from my parents well parent about it, you would only get snippets about it as and when the parent felt up to talking about it. I use a lot of fictionalised and non-fiction accounts of being estranged from a parent to try and understand the relationship between my parent and their estranged parent, with accounts of estranged mothers being the main focus. (I’m aware this reads a bit strangely; I just didn’t want to risk identifying the person if that makes sense!)
4. Anita and Me by Meera Syal, I either bought this book or was bought it from the lovely bookshop that used to be on the grounds of Bretton College in Yorkshire. It was the first adult book I ever really read apart from Jane Eyre, and I just loved it. I read it so many times, I know it back to front and upside down.
5. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, I think this was the start of my fore into Victorian era fiction and started a real love of a historical fiction, it’s another book I read so many times that I know it inside out.
Your (very similar to my own) thoughts on The Argonauts makes me want to recommend Ross Gay's Book of Delights to you. I've just finished it and am in its glow, and it's truly nothing like Maggie Nelson's work, but take a little glimpse at it and maybe you'd like it! Vignette-y, rosy, and thoughtful.
1-10 Horton Hears a Who by Dr Seuss & The Sneeches also by Dr. Seuss, 11-20: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle and Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, 21-30: Lost Souls by Poppy Z. Brite & Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, 31-40: Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux and The Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love by Jill Conner Browne , 41-50: Wild by Cheryl Strayed and Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
#70s The Magic Faraway Tree #80s Famous 5 or Secret 7 #90s Country Diary Of An Edwardian Lady #00 Twopence To Cross The Mersey #10s A Woman Of Substance #20s (so far) Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine. Hope those make sense, i was born in 1972 so #70s is my 1st decade. Bongy books are beautiful.
Hi 😏